Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Remove a dog and rabbit from a pen and the cat remains; remove body and mind and the “I” should still be sitting on the cushion — if it truly exists. Ven Jampa Gendun builds this analogy into the final session of this series, a 46-minute guided meditation on selflessness. He walks practitioners through a systematic search: five bodily elements (solid, fluid, heat, breath, space), then four mental aggregates (feelings, perceptions, mental constructions, six consciousnesses). Nothing is found. He describes the emotional aftermath with striking imagery: like standing on a windswept ridge hearing a dog bark in the valley, or watching your house disappear around the last corner as you leave home forever. He closes by placing this within the three fundamentals — renunciation, awakening mind, and correct view — and reads a dedication prayer from a sūtra.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 HoM 1993 12 01.mp3
UUID: f16170fa-1d16-4b74-b274-d36a5ccfff93
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1993-12-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.2 minutes
Words: ~3,287
A dog, a cat, and a dog, a cat, and what else? A rabbit. Good. Thank you. You had a had a dog, a cat, a rabbit in a pen.
It’s pretty stupid. And you took out you had you had them in a pen, and you took out you took out the dog and the rabbit. You should have the cat left over. Yeah? So likewise, if the I exists, if we remove the body, if it exists at this vicinity where it appears, if we remove the body, set it to one side, if we remove the mind, set it to one side, there should be an I left sitting on the cushion somewhere over here.
The I should remain. So the way we’re going to operate, the way we’re going to approach this fourth point is actually we’re going to work with the first essential, trying to identify the object of negation with our own experience, first calming the mind, and then in a very deliberate manner trying to induce some emotional experience, but trying to maintain awareness and a part of mind acting as a spy to identify what this I appears, how it appears to ourselves. Then we’re going to look for it, First within the body and mind and then without. In terms of the body and mind, you know, we’ve talked about the fact that the body is made up of five elements: earth, water, fire, wind energy, and space element. So we’re going to carry out our physical search, our bodily search in terms of those.
So beginning at the top of your head, top of the hair on top of your head, working our way down slowly through the body. First, examining the earth element. So this is the solid parts of the body, the dense parts of the body, the muscles, the organs, the teeth, the tissues, the bones. And actually, coming you come across and you say, is that the eye which I observed previously? And take your tongue out.
Is that no. That’s not right. Put back. Then moving on. And then working your way down through the body in terms of the earth element, the solid parts, the dense parts.
And water the water element, all the the the flowing substances, urine, saliva, blood, lymph, coming across those, looking, examining, investigating, is this the eye? Fire element, the actual heat of the body, the temperature of the body, is that the eye? Wind energy element, respiration, inhalation, exhalation, the energies moving throughout the body, the space element going through the body and looking not within the hollows but the hollows themselves, the spaces, the cavities. Are they the eye, the self? Then we’ll look through the mind in terms of the four mental aggregates.
First, we look at feelings, pleasurable feelings, unpleasurable feelings, neutral feelings. Are they the I? No. We’re not saying the I doesn’t have feelings, but is the pleasurable feeling, is that the I that you observed previously if you experience a pleasurable feeling? Perceptions, you know, thinking this is a flower, the kinds of thoughts.
This is a flower. This is water. This is good. This is bad. Thought construction, different emotions, love, faith, anger, jealousy.
And then finally, consciousnesses. There are six types of primary consciousnesses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mental consciousnesses. Are any of them are those the eye? The eye consciousness, that which sees colors and shapes, is that the eye that you identified? The mental consciousness, that which knows thoughts, that which perceives mental images, is that the eye?
And then if we become a bit more, I haven’t found the eye within the body and mind, maybe it’s different than the body and the mind in terms of being a different entity. None of the parts of the body. It’s not like finding the head shepherd amongst shepherds, but maybe it’s more like the shepherd and the sheep. So if I get rid of the sheep, I should be able to find the shepherd. So we’re going to get rid of the sheep.
So we begin to dismember the body and setting them aside one by one, and then the mind. There should be an eye remaining. At the end of that process, you really have devoted yourself to the process with great enthusiasm and clarity, then there’ll be a sense of a loss in terms of, you know, I really thought I I saw it there, and I looked. You know, if you if you had if you had two boxes and, you know, you put something very valuable, at least you believe you put something very valuable in one of them. And you open the first.
Oh, it’s not there. And you open the second. My god. Where is it? You know, there’s some kind of like, some kind of startled feeling.
Maybe in some kind of fear, something anxiety will arise. What you thought was there wasn’t to be found. If it’s there, it must be either the same as the body mind. It must be different than the body mind. It’s neither the same as the body mind.
It’s neither different than the body mind. If it exists, it must be one of those two. If it’s neither of those two, it doesn’t exist. Contrary to appearances, it doesn’t exist. It appears to exist, but that is a false appearance.
If it existed, I should have been able to find it, and I didn’t. That understanding which arises, that non findability which arises in dependence upon this analysis, is an understanding of emptiness, selflessness. A vacuity appears to the mind, a non finding, a negation. An absence appears to the mind, the absence of what you believe to be there. That absence appears to your mind.
That absence is emptiness, selflessness. And you try have you you’ve tried to gain a sense of, you know, a sense hold on to that that awareness of that absence. Try to you concentrate on that, and then slowly it diminishes. And then again, you perform the analysis. And then that awareness of that absence arises.
Again, you concentrate on it. Again and again, this is the way that we finally begin to weaken the force of ignorance. That ignorance is a belief which holds that that which is empty, in fact, exists. So it’s like a complete opposite, like adding hot and cold water. As this awareness increases in force, in terms of length in terms of being able to hold it, then it’s going to weaken ignorance that much more, like the movement of a balance beam, until ignorance arises less and less and less until they reach the point where ignorance is completely eliminated from the consciousness and can never rise again.
There is only the wisdom, understanding, emptiness. So I’ve talked a long time. So let’s try all that. Do you want to stand for a minute? Would you like to stand for a minute?
If you like to stand, we’ll take just a minute. You might want to stand up because okay. So, you know, beginning as we usually do in terms of developing our motivation again. You know, as Khen Rinpoche said last night, dharma is very much a matter of motivation. If something we can’t the outside forms, the techniques in themselves are not the dharma.
What determines whether something is the dharma, whether it’s going to assist us in solving our problems or simply be a method, a means of extending, supporting our difficulties and our misconceptions, our distorted notions, our problems basically, is in terms of our motivation. And anything, you know, if you do something out of a sense of altruism, a sense of compassion, a sense of caring, sense of wanting to help either oneself or another, then it can become anything can be transformed into a means of solving your problems as it becomes dharma. Dharma is simply that which brings about ultimate transformation, those means, those methods toward that end. And this is dependent upon one’s motivation. So so, again, developing a positive motivation and as we normally do in terms of developing love and compassion.
And I thought, you know, we we we vary the object each evening trying to move to a more and more difficult object. And one object that we have never chosen that we can try to work on as best we can is the group itself. So, taking as the object of our cultivation of compassion and love, everyone in this room this evening, some of those people that you know well, others that you are simply acquaintances, perhaps a few that you’ve never met before. But they’re they’re all very much like yourself. They all want to be happy.
None of them want to suffer. They’re all exactly equal in that sense. And just initially trying to develop a sense of friendly caring toward them in terms of, it would be wonderful if they didn’t have any problems. The people in this room, if they didn’t have any difficulties, I would like that very much. May they be free of suffering.
May they may they find solutions to their problem. I’m going to help them. I’m going to commit myself in working with them in solving their problems. It’d be wonderful if all of these people were happy. I would like that very much.
May all of you be happy. I’m going to help you. I’m going to commit myself to all of you in helping you to solve your problems, to free yourself from your difficulties, to find happiness. And the way I am going to fulfill my commitment to you at this very moment is through my meditation. And by developing myself, my skills, my wisdom and my love, then eventually I can be of real, practical, significant benefit.
And then bring your mind to the breath. A gentle, easy, in and out flow natural breath. I hope it’s helpful using the techniques of counting and noting. So, begin by very gentle manner evoking a strong sense of self I using your imagination, using your various experiences. But try to maintain part of your mind as a spy.
When you get the sense of I, when you feel scared or you feel surprised, feel hurt or worried, I’m worried, try to get a sense of how that I is appearing to you. What does it look like? Does it appear independent? Does it appear changing? Does it appear to have lots of parts or no parts?
Does it appear physical, non physical? So just very gently begin to induce an emotional experience, but try to maintain part of your mind as a spy. Now we’re going to search for that eye that we’ve identified. The place that it appears is somewhere around the body and mind in that area, in that vicinity. So we’re going to look within the body.
And first we’re going to look at the earth element, all the very solid parts of the body, the dense parts, the organs, the bones, the teeth, the hair, the muscles. Just working your way down through the body, examining, is this the eye that appeared so vividly to me? Is this the eye that I identify? From the top of your head down to your toes, looking at the solid parts. Now we will look at the water element.
The various fluids in the body, the flowing substances, the saliva, the urine, the lymph, the blood, working your way down through the body, examining all the flowing fluid substances, investigating, is this the eye, the self? Then the fire element, the warmth of the body, is that the I, the self that appeared. And the wind energy element, the flow of the breath, the respiration, the energy moving throughout the body. And the space element, the hollow parts, the cavities, all the various spaces in the body, are they themselves the I that you identify? And we look at the mind.
First in terms of feelings, pleasurable feelings, unpleasurable feelings, neutral feelings. Are any of them the I, the self that you identified? Then discriminations or perceptions and types of thoughts which think this is a flower, this is a table, this is good, this is bad, this is long, this is short. This is John. This is Mary.
Are those types of thoughts, those discriminations, are they the I, the self? And mental constructions, all our various emotions, positive emotions, negative emotions, faith, love, compassion, hatred, anger, jealousy? Are they the I that you identified? Are they the self, the emotions themselves? Finally, the men the mental consciousness.
The consciousness is and the eye consciousness, that which sees colors and shapes, is that the I itself that you’re identifying, that which sees colors and shapes, that which knows colors and shapes? The ear consciousness, that which knows sounds, that which hears sounds. Nose consciousness, that which smells odors. Tongue consciousness, that which tastes flavors, that which knows flavors, is that the I itself? The body consciousness, that which experiences objects of touch.
A mental consciousness that which knows thoughts, knows mental images. Is there anything else that we have overlooked in the mind and body? So now we’re going to begin to set aside the parts. I’m beginning to dismember your body. Now looking at your right arm, examining it.
Is anything there that is equivalent to the I, the self that you identified, that corresponds to it, that you identified? And set aside your right arm and then your left arm and your right leg Your left, A trunk of your body. The head. And the components of the mind, setting aside to one side all your various feelings. None of them are the I.
Perceptions, the types of thoughts we think this is good, this is bad, setting those aside. Emotions, love, hate, setting those aside. The consciousnesses, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mental consciousnesses. We have set aside all the components of body and mind. Is there an I left over sitting on your cushion?
Is there something there that you can identify that corresponds to what you observed? Is there anything left over? Is there anything remaining? Something that appeared very vivid to you, that appeared very real to you. You looked for it and you couldn’t find it.
If it exists, it must have been there. You would have been able to find it, but you didn’t find it. What you found was a lack, an absence of something that you thought all this time was there. So try to gain a sense of loss, a sense of you didn’t find what you were looking for. You found an absence of that something.
Try to focus upon the sense of loss, of not being able to find what you thought was there. You found an absence. That emptiness. Bring your mind back to the breath. Then gently becoming aware of your body in a very relaxed manner.
There’s no hurry. Just taking your time. Becoming aware of your surroundings. This analysis, if carried out relentlessly until one begins to be convinced intellectually that no inherent existence can be found. In the practice of mindfulness awareness, meditation brings an intellectual understanding into the intuitive level of realization.
It enters into one’s perceptual process at the deepest level so that one perceives one’s experience as projections of emptiness, no longer projecting inherent existence onto it. The realization of emptiness may be sudden or it may be gradual, or it may gradually dawn on one. And before it dawns, such discovery may at first rouse fear, great anger, especially in the mind that finds its identity in the perception and analysis of a world in terms of things, the mind that we take to be a special marker of being human. Beyond fear, this realization may bring with it a feeling or quality of sadness and loneliness. It is as if you were standing on the top of a high ridge, the wind blowing its rain in your face, and you hear a dog barking in the valley below.
Again, it is as if you have just left home, knowing you will never return. As you look back, your house disappears around the last corner. The thing world that is so familiar to you and that you have been has been your constant companion for so many years is slipping away. And slipping away too is your self centered concern. Yet ironically, that very moment of intense sadness is felt as if one were suddenly relieved from an impossible burden.
It is said that it brings with it great joy, the joy of discovering the truth of non separateness or non duality. So I’m sorry that we had to move along more quickly than I had wanted to. I would have liked to. There’s a lot left that we could have discussed in terms of dependent arising, different means of coming to an understanding of emptiness. But I know you have a wonderful teacher here you can rely upon in terms of Khen Rinpoche.
So we’ve — tonight’s — I guess, as most of you are aware, it’s the last night that we’ll be together. And we’ve looked at this the three fundamentals of the path: renunciation, the awakening mind — the awakened heart — and the correct view. And, you know, these are really something that we can work with, something that which, you know, we we can shape the quality of our lives with. These are these tools and these knowledges, we can make our own.
These techniques and understandings, which have been passed down for two thousand five hundred years by people who found them as a means to solve their own problems. They’re available to us. We can they’re accessible if we’re willing to work with them and to, you know, to discipline ourselves in some consistent manner to make to integrate them, to make them a part of our own understanding. So, you know, I’d like to thank you all very much for your great kindnesses that you have shown me and your patience and your listening to my oftentimes confused and haphazard explanation. It’s been of great value to myself.
I’ve grown through the process. And I hope very much that perhaps in some small way that I have contributed to your growth over the course of this process. So we’ve all created a great deal of accumulated a great deal of creative potential and skillful actions together. And if I can just take the time to share a prayer of dedication with you. It’s I read one of them last week, and I’d like to read the the second of the two.
So it begins with the idea of of compassion. It’s from a a sūtra, a discourse of discourse of the Buddha called the Noble Vajra Banner of Victory. Thus: That mass of suffering, the suffering of all sentient beings and their various obstructions and hindering actions because of which they do not see the Buddha nor the nor hear the Dharma nor the Sangha. Do I take upon myself, my own body, a bundle of pain accumulated through the three doors of defiled actions?
The suffering of those beings who are born in hell who dwell in realms of cruel migrations. May death take them beyond such migrations. That awesome mass of suffering do I assume? To that end I strive. In that end I take joy.
From that end I shall not turn away, nor shall I